Naomi Lieberman has flown the nest of her hometown in Liverpool to seek the bright lights of London. Despite having a degree in forensic science, Naomi finds herself working as a sales assistant at a sex shop in Soho. This is just one of many shameful secrets she has to hide from her Orthodox Jewish [...]
You’re in my bed again, at last, tonight. You’re in my home again - or maybe prison to you, but home to me - at last, tonight. The moon is out, as it was that first night; but tonight only one pair of eyes is watching it. Yours are closed as you lie fast asleep, [...]
Being deprived of any sort of holiday this summer has made me ... well, kind of nostalgic. Dreamy. Yearning for a summer of long ago. A balmy, sexy summer back in communist Poland of the 1980s, deep in the heart of the Tatra mountains. And here’s the weird thing. It’s a summer I never even [...]
I wrote this poem one Valentine's Day many, many years ago, when my heart was full of longing for a forbidden love. I never sent it to the man in question, because ... well, I just didn't. I couldn't. So here it is now, several decades late. Wonder if he'll finally read it? LOST LOVE [...]
I could easily have written a post about twenty suggestions for gripping summer reading, or even thirty, but I thought it best to keep it short. Each of the novels listed below has been selected either because of its beautiful writing, its compelling storyline, or in some cases, both. So here you are then, my [...]
This post is dedicated to my daughter, and to all others who are currently undergoing quarantine and self-isolation due to COVID-19. When she first spotted the message on her mobile, sent by the quarantine police (as she liked to call them) scarcely an hour after arriving back home in Kraków in the middle of the [...]
Extract from ONCE UPON A THOUSAND HILLS. Tense interview between sex shop worker Naomi Lieberman and Rwandan Director of a London refugee centre. I step inside the room, closing the door behind me. “Hello, I’m –” And suddenly, I stop. I’m lost for words. Even though only two words need follow. “Naomi Lieberman?” I nod. [...]
Wendy Skorupski 